Cardinal With Kids: Every Stop, New River Gorge Tips and Kids Tickets
Can you ride the Cardinal with kids? Yes, as long as you plan around its calendar: it runs only three days a week each way between New York and Chicago, a trip of about 27.5 to 29 hours. Kids 2 to 12 ride for half price, and the payoff is the New River Gorge in West Virginia, which the eastbound train passes in the morning. You'll also climb over the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains and stop at a tiny former coal town whose depot is now a national park visitor center. Here's every stop, the days it runs, the rooms that work for families and a real day trip through the gorge.
The short version
- It does not run daily: it leaves New York Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and Chicago Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
- For the gorge, ride eastbound, which passes between about 9 and 11 a.m. Westbound goes through in the evening.
- A Charleston to Hinton round trip works as a day trip on Wednesday, Friday or Sunday.
- One Viewliner sleeper car with Roomettes and Bedrooms; two Bedrooms join into a four-bed suite.
- Coach is half price for ages 2 to 12, but the sleeper room charge is full price.
- Thurmond is a flag stop inside New River Gorge National Park, with a 1904 depot.
Cardinal at a glance
- Runs between
- New York City and Chicago, by way of Washington, D.C., Charleston, Cincinnati and Indianapolis
- States
- New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois
- Distance
- about 1,146 miles
- End to end
- about 27.5 hours eastbound, about 29 hours westbound
- Trains
- Three round trips a week
- Train cars
- Single-level Amfleet II coaches, an Amfleet cafe and lounge car, and a Viewliner sleeper
- Four-seat tables
- None in coach; booths in the cafe and lounge car
- Upstairs seating
- None, all one level
- Food
- Cafe car for everyone; Flex Dining meals included for sleeper passengers
- Sleeper rooms
- Roomettes, Bedrooms and an Accessible Bedroom; no Family Bedroom
- Checked bags
- At selected stations; both of your stations must offer it
- Riders
- 98,583 in fiscal year 2025, up 6 percent
Look inside the book
Heading into the Alleghenies? Bring Rally for the tunnels.
Rally’s train goes dark in a tunnel and comes out into bright light, the same thing your kids will see in the Cardinal’s mountains. Flip through a few pages here.
Rally Takes the Train
Eight pages from the book
Turn the page
That's 8 of 25 pages
See who’s waiting at the station
Grandmommy and Papa are at the last stop. Get the full hand-painted book, $13.99 on Amazon.
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Like it so far? See the full book
25 hand-painted pages, paperback, $13.99 with fast shipping from Amazon.
Every page is real watercolor on paper, painted by hand by Leslie Dunn. Nothing in this book was made with AI.
Do kids need a ticket on the Cardinal?
The Cardinal uses Amtrak’s usual family deal: half-price fares for ages 2 to 12 riding with someone 18 or older, and one free lap seat per adult for a baby under 2. No one 12 or younger can ride without an adult.
Start with the calendar. Train 51 leaves New York on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Train 50 leaves Chicago on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so it rolls through West Virginia and Virginia on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Here’s the catch with kids: if someone wakes up sick and you have to change plans, the next train may be two days out. Build a cushion into that grandparent visit.
The room costs extra, and the kid discount skips it. Amtrak’s child discount comes off the rail fare only, not the sleeping room charge. The Cardinal usually carries just one sleeping car, and the train often sells out in peak fall color season, so book October trips early.
Small stations, small details. Thurmond is a flag stop, which means the train only stops there when someone is booked to get on or off. Checked bags work only when both your starting and ending stations offer baggage service. For the general family rules, see our Amtrak with kids guide.
Free for train families
Free Cardinal activity book
Screen-free fun for the whole ride: track all 32 Cardinal stops, spot landmarks out the window, play train window bingo and earn an “I rode the Cardinal” certificate. Free to print at home.
Get the free Cardinal activity bookEvery Cardinal stop, from New York to Chicago
The Cardinal makes 32 stops, listed here from New York to Chicago. Thurmond, West Virginia, is a flag stop. Heading toward New York, most stops north of Washington are for getting off only, so skip this train for short Northeast Corridor hops.
New York- New York Penn Station
- Newark Penn Station
- Trenton
- Philadelphia (30th Street Station)Look for: Near the Schuylkill River crossing, have them watch for Boathouse Row and the Philadelphia Museum of Art as the train comes into 30th Street.
- Wilmington
- Baltimore Penn Station
- Washington Union Station
- Alexandria
- Manassas
- Culpeper
- Charlottesville
- Staunton
- Clifton ForgeLook for: The town sits on a small crescent of land beside the Jackson River. The station is a gray wooden railroad office building from 1906.
- White Sulphur SpringsLook for: Point out the brick depot from about 1931, dressed up as a Christmas shop. The Greenbrier runs it, the famous resort that trains have served since 1869.
- Alderson
- HintonLook for: Hinton grew up as a railroad center. The Hinton Railroad Museum in its historic district has exhibits and walking tour maps for curious kids.
- PrinceLook for: Look for the red-brick Art Deco depot, built in 1946 and still serving the Cardinal today.
- Thurmond (flag stop)Look for: The two-story 1904 depot is now a National Park Service visitor center. Ask the kids to guess how many people it served in its busiest year: 75,000.
- Montgomery
- CharlestonLook for: The 1905 Chesapeake & Ohio station sits on the south bank of the Kanawha River, with downtown right across the water.
- Huntington
- Ashland
- South Shore (for Portsmouth, Ohio)
- Maysville
- Cincinnati Union TerminalLook for: The Art Deco terminal has the largest half-dome in the Western Hemisphere and a children’s museum inside. Cartoon fans, it inspired the Hall of Justice in Super Friends. The train stops here in the middle of the night, so save it for a daytime visit.
- Connersville
- Indianapolis Union StationLook for: Have them find the 185-foot clock tower on the 1888 Union Station headhouse, built of granite and brick.
- Crawfordsville
- LafayetteLook for: The whole 1902 Big Four Depot was moved in 1994 to Riehle Plaza, beside a city park on the Wabash River.
- Rensselaer
- Dyer
- Chicago Union StationLook for: Walk them through the Great Hall and tell them to look up: the barrel-vaulted skylight sits 110 feet overhead.
What kids can see from the Cardinal
The New River Gorge, in daylight
This is the part to plan your whole trip around. New River Gorge became a national park on December 27, 2020, and it protects 53 miles of the longest and deepest river gorge in the Appalachian Mountains. The train follows the river along the bottom, with views you can’t get from the road, and from April through October kids may spot rafts on the whitewater below.
Timing is the whole game. Eastbound train 50 runs from Montgomery at 9:02 a.m. to Hinton at 10:50 a.m., straight through the gorge in morning light. Westbound train 51 reaches Hinton at 6:46 p.m. and Montgomery at 8:30 p.m., so in fall and winter much of that stretch is dark.
Which side? Neither one wins, because the river switches sides. Take the seats you get, then walk the kids to the cafe and lounge car to look out both ways. Tell them to look up, too: riders get a rare view of the underside of the New River Gorge Bridge, about 876 feet above the river.
Mountains, tunnels and four rivers
Between Charlottesville and Charleston the train climbs the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny Mountains, with curves, grades and several tunnels. One writer called the inside of these tunnels a “perpetual midnight.” Along the way the line follows the Jackson, Greenbrier, New and Kanawha rivers. Can your kids say all four names before Charleston?
Under the Alleghenies, a tunnel crosses the Virginia and West Virginia line at the Eastern Continental Divide. Here’s a kid fact worth saving for that moment: rain on one side flows toward the Atlantic, and rain on the other heads for the Gulf of Mexico.
John Henry country
This railroad was dug through the mountains by hand. Starting in 1870, more than 800 workers, many of them African American, cut the C&O’s 6,450-foot Great Bend Tunnel near Talcott, about 8 miles east of Hinton by road. The National Park Service tells the John Henry legend at a small park there, and it makes a good bedtime story for the train.
Why it’s called the Cardinal
When Amtrak renamed the train in 1977, the cardinal was the state bird of all six states it ran through. So hand the kids a mission: spot a red bird out the window before Chicago.
Where to sit with kids on the Cardinal
Every car on the Cardinal is one level, so nobody has to haul a car seat up a staircase inside. Coach uses Amfleet II cars with two-and-two seating, bigger windows, more legroom and folding legrests. These seats lean back farther than the ones on Amtrak’s shorter regional trains, and each coach has two restrooms, which matters when a potty-trainer says it’s urgent.
Coach has no four-seat tables. Families end up in the cafe and lounge car, where the booths work for puzzles, cards and gorge watching.
The sleeping car is a single-level Viewliner, so there’s no Family Bedroom like on the western Superliner trains. A Roomette fits one adult easily and two snugly. A Bedroom is about twice as big, with its own sink and shower, and two Bedrooms can join into a suite with four beds, the best fit for a family of four.
The upper bunk in a Viewliner Bedroom is a favorite with kids, since whoever sleeps up there gets an outside view too. In the newer Viewliner II cars, Roomettes share restrooms down the hall instead of having a toilet in the room. One more heads-up: going west, the train waits at Washington for more than an hour while crews swap the electric engine for a diesel, so have a snack and a game ready.
Looking for a Quiet Car? We couldn’t confirm one on the Cardinal. Headphones keep the peace in any coach.
No seats together on the Cardinal? Try this
Put everyone on one reservation. A Cardinal coach ticket promises a seat, not a certain seat, and in October, when the train often sells out, the good pairs go fast. At Washington Union Station, arrive about 30 minutes early; crews at a station that busy often board parents with babies and toddlers first.
Getting on in West Virginia, like Charleston at 8:31 a.m., means boarding a train that rolled all night. No two seats side by side? Sit with the aisle between you, or one row ahead of the other, then check the next coach while one parent stays with the kids.
Asking someone to trade? Go early, before blankets come out, and keep it short: “Could we trade? My toddler wants to sit by me.” Offer a seat at least as nice, pointed in the same direction, and never talk anyone out of a window into a worse spot. If it’s a no, smile and move on.
At the door or the ticket scan, tell them how many seats you need and how young the kids are, then ask if any other coach has space. They can get bags cleared off seats, as each ticket covers a single seat, yet they won’t move a seated passenger. Keep toddlers beside you the whole way, gorge or no gorge.
The best first Cardinal ride with kids
These times are from Amtrak’s current timetable. Check the day of the week twice, since the Cardinal doesn’t run daily.
- Charleston to Hinton and back, a gorge day trip (about 2 hours 20 minutes each way). On a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday, board eastbound train 50 in Charleston at 8:31 a.m. and roll into Hinton at 10:50 a.m., through the gorge in daylight. Westbound train 51 leaves Hinton at 6:46 p.m. the same day and has you back in Charleston at 9:09 p.m., so pack pajamas for that last leg.
- Montgomery to Hinton (about 1 hour 50 minutes). It runs from 9:02 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. eastbound, and it’s the stretch where National Park Service volunteers have ridden along on fall trips to talk with passengers. Curious kids can save up their questions.
- Washington to Charlottesville (about 2 hours 45 minutes). Westbound train 51 leaves Washington at 11:39 a.m. on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and reaches Charlottesville at 2:23 p.m., heading toward the Blue Ridge. You’ll need a car or a different train for the ride back.
Food, bathrooms and naps on the Cardinal
There’s no separate dining car in the current lineup. The cafe car is open to everyone from early morning until late evening, with meals, snacks and drinks, though it can close for crew breaks and during the Washington stop. Keep a snack in your bag for those gaps.
Sleeper passengers get Flex Dining meals in the fare. They’re made ahead, heated on board, and brought to your room or eaten in the cafe car. Westbound train 51 serves breakfast, lunch and dinner on day one and breakfast on day two; eastbound train 50 serves dinner on day one, then three meals on day two.
Overnight, the train crosses Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana in the dark, stopping in Cincinnati around 2 to 3 a.m. In coach, kids sleep in the reclining seats with the legrests up, so pack a small pillow and a blanket that smells like home. Sleeper riders get fresh linens, towels and shower access. For the long Washington stop, our printable maze and counting pages buy you some calm.
Changing a diaper? We couldn’t confirm changing tables on the Cardinal’s cars, so a portable pad and the bigger accessible restroom are your plan.
A train book for the ride
In Rally Takes the Train, the train slips into a dark tunnel, and then a bright light shines at the far end. The Cardinal gives your kids that exact page for real in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. Before the first tunnel, make it a game: everyone whispers in the dark, then cheers when the light comes back.
Rally watches a white bird from his window seat, and this train is named for a red one. Print our free Rally activity pack and add a cardinal to the coloring pages for the ride through the gorge.
A tunnel story for the CardinalRally Takes the Train is a five-minute rhyming picture book about a corgi’s first train ride, dark tunnel included, painted by hand in watercolor. $13.99 on Amazon, ages 0 to 8.
Buy on Amazon
More for train families
- Every Amtrak route with kids: find another train by city or station
- The complete guide to Amtrak with kids: tickets, car seats, changing tables, family tables and what to pack by age
- Free Rally activity pack and coloring pages to print before your trip
- Crescent with kids
- Lake Shore Limited with kids
- Northeast Regional with kids
Sources
- Amtrak: Cardinal timetable
- Cardinal timetable, Sept to Oct 2026 (juckins.net)
- Amtrak: Passenger discount for children
- Wikipedia: Cardinal (train)
- Wikipedia: Viewliner
- Wikipedia: Amfleet
- Wikipedia: New River Gorge National Park and Preserve
- Wikipedia: The Greenbrier
- Wikipedia: Cincinnati Union Terminal
- Wikipedia: Chicago Union Station
- NPS: Thurmond Passenger Depot
- NPS: Prince Depot
- NPS: John Henry Park, Talcott
- NPS: Nearby attractions, New River Gorge
- NPS: Volunteers riding the rails on the Cardinal
- Great American Stations: Charleston, WV
- Travels With Kev: Amtrak Cardinal guide
- American Rails: Cardinal route guide
- Blue Ridge Country: Riding the Amtrak Cardinal
- Amtrak Cardinal route guide (juckins.net)
- Hawkins Rails: Cardinal locations east
- Hawkins Rails: Cardinal locations west
Checked against Amtrak and partner railroad pages in October 2026. Schedules and policies change, so confirm on amtrak.com before you ride.
Cardinal with kids: questions parents ask
Do kids need a ticket on the Cardinal?
Yes. In coach, every kid from 2 through 12 is charged half fare when booked alongside an adult 18 or over, and their age on the first travel day sets the price. In a sleeper, the room charge isn't discounted for kids, so a Roomette costs the same whether a child or an adult takes the second bed. The Cardinal often sells out in fall color season, so book October trips early.
Do babies ride free on the Cardinal?
Yes. Each adult paying the full adult price gets one free lap spot for a child younger than 2. One parent with twins? Only one rides free; the other is billed at the kids' rate, same as any baby you'd rather put in a seat. Spare seats go to paying riders first, so a lap baby only spreads out when one sits unclaimed, and in October, when this train often sells out, don't count on finding one.
Do I need a car seat on the Cardinal?
No. Amtrak won't let a car seat be secured to its seats, the Cardinal's included. You may park one on a seat nobody bought, but if a paying rider needs that seat, your under-2 goes back on your lap while the car seat gets stored with the baggage. Worth hauling only for a drive out of Charleston or Hinton.
Are there changing tables on the Cardinal?
We couldn't confirm changing tables on the Cardinal's Amfleet II coaches or its Viewliner sleeper. There's no official Amtrak rule about them, so bring a changing mat of your own and aim for the larger accessible restroom. Each coach has two restrooms, so if one is busy, try the other. A sleeper Bedroom has its own sink, which makes cleanup easier.
What are the bathrooms like on the Cardinal?
Each Amfleet II coach on the Cardinal has two restrooms, all on one level, with an occupied light so you know when to wait. Walk young kids there yourself and prep them for the roar of the flush. In the newer Viewliner II sleepers, Roomettes share restrooms down the hall instead of having a toilet in the room, so plan nighttime trips with a potty-trainer.
Can I bring a stroller on the Cardinal?
Yes. A parent with a child under 2 can bring one stroller or diaper bag that doesn't count against the two carry-ons and one personal item. A folding stroller can be checked free, swapped for a suitcase, but on the Cardinal both your starting and ending stations must offer baggage service, so check before counting on it at a small stop like Thurmond. Big jogging strollers may need checking.
Can I breastfeed or make a bottle on the Cardinal?
Yes. Nursing in public is allowed by law in every one of the 50 states, so you can feed the baby wherever you're sitting. Amtrak says dining car staff can help with bottles, but the Cardinal has no separate dining car in its current lineup, only a cafe car that can close for crew breaks and during the Washington stop. Pack premeasured formula, clean bottles and water so you never depend on it.
What food is on the Cardinal for kids?
The cafe and lounge car is open to everyone from early morning until late evening, with meals, snacks and drinks. Sleeper passengers get Flex Dining meals in their fare: westbound, that's breakfast, lunch and dinner on day one and breakfast on day two. Bring a bag of familiar snacks too, for the gaps between meals and the overnight run through Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.
How do I keep kids busy on the Cardinal?
Plan the day around the New River Gorge. Eastbound, the train runs from Montgomery at 9:02 a.m. to Hinton at 10:50 a.m. along the river, with rafts below from April through October and the underside of the New River Gorge Bridge overhead. Give kids the mission of spotting a red cardinal, print our free coloring pages for the train, and read Rally between tunnels.
Where should our family sit on the Cardinal?
Coach is two and two in Amfleet II cars, with no four-seat tables, so a family of four sits across the aisle or in two rows. The booths in the cafe and lounge car are the spot for cards and gorge watching, and since the river switches sides, any seat works. For real family space, two Viewliner Bedrooms join into a four-bed suite, and the upper bunk is a kid favorite.
Does the Cardinal have a Quiet Car?
Our research didn't turn up a Quiet Car on the Cardinal, which runs Amfleet II coaches, one cafe and lounge car and a Viewliner sleeper. Ask the conductor when you board if you want to know. If your train does have one, expect hushed voices, no phone calls and muted devices, which is hard for a toddler. Headphones for tablets are a must in any car.
What should I pack for kids on the Cardinal?
Pack for about 27.5 hours eastbound or 29 hours westbound, plus a cushion. Bring a small pillow and a blanket from home for the night through Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, extra diapers and wipes, headphones, a changing pad, and a snack and game for the long Washington stop while crews swap the electric engine for a diesel. A red crayon for cardinal drawings is optional.
Does the Cardinal have a Family Bedroom for sleeping?
No. Family Bedrooms belong to the two-level Superliner trains out West, and the Cardinal carries one single-level Viewliner sleeper. You can book a Roomette, a Bedroom with its own sink and shower, or an Accessible Bedroom, and two Bedrooms can join into a four-bed suite. In coach, kids nap in the reclining seats with the legrests up. Cincinnati comes around 2 to 3 a.m.
What is the best first ride on the Cardinal?
For a short first ride, go eastbound from Montgomery at 9:02 a.m. to Hinton at 10:50 a.m., straight through the gorge. Want a full day? On a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday, ride from Charleston at 8:31 a.m. to Hinton, explore the railroad town, and catch the 6:46 p.m. train back, arriving at 9:09 p.m. It's the only easy same-day round trip on the route.
Can kids ride the Cardinal alone?
Anyone 12 or under needs an adult along, every time. Teens 13 to 15 need Amtrak's unaccompanied minor setup: an adult fare booked over the phone at 1-800-USA-RAIL, daytime trains only, staffed stations at both ends and no transfers. That leaves out the Cardinal's overnight run, so ask Amtrak whether a daytime piece, like Washington to Charlottesville, qualifies. Riders 16 and 17 can go alone.
How early should we get to the station for the Cardinal?
About 30 minutes early is Amtrak's rule of thumb, and at a busy station like Washington Union Station, families with small children often get to board first. Small stops work differently. Thurmond is a flag stop, so the train halts only when someone is booked to get on or off there. Set up your ride or lodging first, like a rafting resort pickup, since the town is tiny.
What if my child is scared of the Cardinal's tunnels?
Several tunnels in the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains go fully dark, a stretch one writer called perpetual midnight. Tell kids ahead of time, hold a hand, and make it a game: whisper in the dark, then cheer when the light comes back, just like Rally's tunnel page. If the horn or the dark is too much, walk to the cafe and lounge car and pull out our blank train window to draw in.
Is the Cardinal safe for kids?
Yes, if you keep a few habits. On the platform, small hands stay in yours and everyone waits behind the platform line. In the mountains the train works through curves and grades, so kids should be sitting or gripping something while it moves, and the walk to the cafe means crossing between cars together. Shoes stay on, even for an overnight bathroom trip somewhere in Ohio.
What if the Cardinal is delayed with kids?
Before you leave, find your Cardinal on the Amtrak app's map, read any travel advisories, and pack extra snacks and diapers. The bigger worry is the calendar: the Cardinal runs only three days a week, so if your plans fall apart, the next train may be two days away. Build a cushion into grandparent visits. Westbound, expect a wait of more than an hour at Washington, so bring our train word search and fill-in ticket page.
What if the Cardinal is full and we're split up?
Stay within reach while you sort it out: take two seats close together, even if the aisle sits between you. Then one parent walks the other Amfleet II coaches looking for a free pair while the kids stay with the other. A seat with a bag on it isn't really taken, since luggage never gets a seat of its own. Eastbound through the gorge, the river switches sides, so any two seats together will do.
Is it rude to ask a stranger to trade seats on the Cardinal?
Not if you do it kindly and early, before people stretch out for the long haul. Tell them you've got a little one who'd like to sit with you, and offer a trade that's as good or better: aisle for aisle, window for window, same direction. Never push someone toward a lesser seat. If they decline, thank them, then ask the conductor at the ticket check whether another coach has open seats together.
What days does the Cardinal train run?
Three days a week each way, so check the calendar before anything else. Train 51 leaves New York on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and reaches Chicago the next morning. Train 50 leaves Chicago on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and reaches New York the next night. In West Virginia, both directions pass through on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, one in the morning and one in the evening.